‘29 Indians sentenced to death in various countries’

Thane: A total of 29 Indians have been sentenced to death for various criminal offences during the last five years in various countries, the External Affairs Ministry has said in response to an RTI query.

In reply to a query under the Right to Information Act by activist Om Prakash Sharma, the MEA report has stated that 21 Indians had been awarded death sentence in the United Arab Emirates, six in Kuwait and one each in Indonesia and Iran.

Twenty-seven of those sentenced to death have been convicted for murder along with other offences like abduction, burning, hiding body, theft, adultery and intoxication, the report said.

The remaining two have been awarded capital punishment for offences punishable under the Narcotics Act and Drugs Act, it said.

In all, 10,647 Indians had been convicted in various countries for criminal offences and imprisoned, including the 29 death penalties.

The UAE tops the list with as many as 4,315 Indian convicts, followed by Bangladesh with 2,008 convicts, Kuwait 1,161, China 673, Oman 429, UK 426 and some other nations have less than 250 convicts, the report mentioned.